This invention relates to a sheet discharge apparatus that discharges sheets discharged from an image forming apparatus such as copiers, printers, facsimile machines or a combination of two or more of these, to a storage tray.
Conventionally, sheet discharge apparatuses that are mounted to image forming apparatuses, such as copiers, printers and facsimiles or a combination of two or more of these, and that form aligned sheet bundles urged toward an aligning member such as a side fence by rotating bodies such as rollers, paddles and belts for aligning each sheet fed to a storage tray from the image forming apparatus and for finishing aligned sheet bundles using staples, punching holes or by applying glue, are well known.
In these sheet discharge apparatuses, rotating bodies such as discharge rollers are arranged to discharge sheets to a storage tray. These sheet discharge apparatuses are structured to align each sheet discharged to the storage tray, and through such structure, the rotating bodies such as the rollers, paddles and belts for alignment do not hinder sheet discharge operation of the discharge means.
For example, as disclosed in FIG. 42 in Japanese Patent Publication (Tokkai) No. 02-28471, the friction roller 504 for alignment is arranged retractable from the opening 218H disposed at the reference wall 218D on the storage tray 218. This is configured so that the rotating body having the friction roller 540 aligns each sheet S1 and S2 discharged to the storage tray 218 by the discharge means having the discharge rollers 202 and 208 against the side wall 218F, allowing the rotating bodies having the friction roller 540 for alignment not to hinder the sheet discharge operation of the discharge means having composed by the discharge rollers 202 and 208.
However, in the conventional sheet discharge apparatus described above, because the rotating body for alignment (friction roller 540) is arranged to enter into the storage tray 218 under the discharge means (discharge rollers 202 and 208) that discharges the sheets to the storage tray 218, the number of sheets that can be aligned decreases, resulting in a problem of not fully utilizing the storage space of the storage tray, even though there is additional storage space remaining on the upper portion of the storage tray 218.
An object of the present invention is to provide a sheet discharge apparatus having rotating bodies for alignment and fully utilizing the storage capacity of a storage tray without hindering the discharge operation of the discharge means such as discharge rollers, and to provide an image forming apparatus equipped with the same.